Mahima
Aiming at delimitating Registry’s role in prioritising case, the draft stage of Phase 3 of the e-Courts project has currently proposed a 24/7 digital window for filing cases around the clock.
The window shall be open to the litigants and lawyers to register cases from anywhere and anytime with the provisions of arranging digital hearings in an open court, confirming acquiescence of timelines by both judges and litigants.
The draft proposal uploaded on the website of the justice department seeking stakeholders’ suggestions stated that use of artificial intelligence has been proposed to “intelligently recommend schedules for hearing by optimising and coordinating the schedules and time of different actors (judges, lawyers and litigants)”
The Centre’s earnest e-Courts project has efficaciously completed two phases since its initialization 16 years ago.
At the cost of Rs.2,300 crores, around 19,000 functional district and subordinate courts have been computerised with broadband connectivity and up-to-date communication gadgets.
The next phase encompasses within itself the complete transformation of Indian courts into digital platforms through facilities like e-Pay, e-Summons, e-Hearings and e-Judgments.
This would facilitate the litigants to appear remotely and schedule hearings as per their convenience.
This would also provide the litigants with the option of choosing alternate dispute resolution techniques or regular hearing during e-Filing.
The connectivity between the courts, prison and police will create an interoperable criminal justice system warranting speedy trials and minimising adjournments because of non-appearance of witnesses or lawyers.
The digital court will also provide with data exchange protocol ingrained with privacy policy.
During the second phase of e-Courts project, around 3,400 courts have been made congenial for videoconferencing which was formerly available at High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Phase 3 also proposes to capacitate transcription of court proceedings into audio/video format to a transcribed digital record which shall be produced to the litigants and the lawyers at the end of the proceedings.
It further recommends to transmute court registry into a digital case registry where each case shall have a unique identification number which may further evict the tiring process of refiling of documents in case of appeals.